Music From Portland #2: The Decemberists
The Decemberists: I'm really not sure how to describe these guys, they sound completely unlike just about anything else out there. Their most well known song is a nine minute sea shanty called "The Mariner's Revenge Song", which could almost come straight from the pages of Moby Dick. It even involves a giant whale who eats the protaganist and his mortal enemy (the object of revenge) alive! Unfortunately, there's no video for that song on YouTube, so we'll have to make do with something else.
This is called "16 Military Wives" and the film clip seems to be making some sort of political point. See if you can work out what is... :-)
Once again, we missed out on tickets to see these guys last time they were in Portland. They like to drop Portland references into their songs (The Multnomah County Library, the bus mall, the columns down at the Skidmore Fountain and so on) and the video for "O Valencia" features the Fremont Bridge's plentitude of off ramps and one of the seedy hotels on Interstate. Nothing like a local band that acknowledges its localness!
If you're going to listen to one album by these guys, I would recommend Picaresque. And if you only want to listen to one song, I would say "The Mariner's Revenge Song" or "We Both Go Down Together"
Posted in: chaosboy, music, portland on December 9, 2007 at at 1:34:00 PM